Honors explorations courses are topic-based general education courses taught by faculty in their particular areas of interest and expertise.  Honors students are required to complete three honors explorations courses in different areas.  Below is a list of upcoming course offerings.

Fall 2013

The Wire (HONR 220: Honors Social Science)

Dr. Neal McNabb

Asst. Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice

MWF 11:00am-11:50am

Using HBO's The Wire as a backdrop, this class will undertake a sociological study of numerous issues confronting America.  Though the series is known for being a  realistic, gritty portrayal about inner city life that focuses on drugs and the police, we will not simply study the phenomenon of crime.  Throughout the course of the semester, we will focus on additional topics including, but not limited to, social inequality, urban poverty, public education, race, politics, capitalism and deindustrialization, the role of mass media, etc.   Students will watch the entire television series (five seasons) during the course of the semester, and we will discuss various social problems presented both in the series and from additional readings/outside assignments. 

 NOTE:  This series contains considerable profanity, violence, and sexual content (viewer discretion is advised).

Minds, Fiction and the Human Identity (HONR 230: Honors Humanities)

Dr. Steven Mills

Asst. Professor of Spanish

T/R 9:30am-10:45am

What makes us human? How are we unique among species, and within the human race? How does our mind work? The human mind has been an enigma since the dawn of philosophy, while products of the human mind (e.g. art, tools, literature, culture, etc.) have existed long before. Why do we have cultural or artistic artifacts? We will address these questions while engaging literature as both a product of and evidence of our uniquely human mind, looking at how we interact with characters, or how characters interact among themselves, and on occasion how they interact with us as readers. Literature is an increasing source of studying our inner workings as humans, and in this class we will delve into the discussions, their implications, and the works in order to learn about our basic yet unique and incredibly complex human capabilities.

Interim 2014

HONR 210: Honors Social Science

Dr. Stan Ullerich

Professor of Economics

Spring 2014

Science as Information (HONR 220: Honors Science)

Dr. Jason Shepherd

Asst. Professor of Computer Science

T/R 9:30am-10:45am

Over the past fifty years, computing has had an immutable effect on the physical and life sciences.  Viewing science through the lens of information has led humanity to extraordinary discoveries (e.g., the Human Genome Project) in part because of how easily this information can be explored and manipulated by computers.  In this class, we will apply the scientific method by using computers as our lab and computer code as our tool for scientific discovery.

HONR 230: Honors Humanities

Dr. Laura Bernhardt

Assoc. Professor of Philosophy

Fall 2014

Religions of Iowa (HONR 230: Humanities)

Dr. Swasti Bhattacharyya

Assoc. Professor of Religion

Spring 2015

Clothing & Textiles (HONR 220: Social Science)

Dr. Inez Schaechterle

Assoc. Professor of English